Frank and Josie's House

It's the hard part of moving - packing up your life and throwing stuff out. Some stuff is easy to sort and part with, credit card bills for example, I've never had trouble letting go of those! Other things are really difficult. Do I keep all the kids school work? Will they hate me because I threw some stuff out? My eldest loved looking through her learning book for reception year. Did I I make a mistake? Or should I look at this as a chance to let things go? Clear things out and clear my mind, right? I made a rule when we started the clearing out: if it's either covered in dust or you've forgotten you have it or it's broken it goes. Now I've donated stuff, lots of stuff, and recycled like crazy (our paper recycling could make several new books) I've even donated some old bras! Little aside for a moment: I found, via a link on Facebook, a U.K. charity that recycles bras for women in Africa. Follow the link  here , a very worthy charity and easy to donate to. ...

Having a long-term illness sucks. Part of the annoyance is that my particular illness is still undiagnosed. I know it's nothing serious, which is obviously good, but it is getting me down. Chronic pain is bad enough to deal with but when the medical profession are still guessing where the pain is coming from and thereby what can be done about it it makes that mysterious pain....annoying. I guess that's the word of the hour - annoying. I know people have it worse so I don't want to say it's worse than anything but at the same time I have days when I can barely stand. I struggle back up the hill after doing the school run. I miss rehearsals for my singing group. I have days when I have no energy or I'm too doped up on painkillers to crochet! Yes, it's definitely annoying. I'm not looking for sympathy here, just venting. People see me in the playground and anyone who doesn't actually know me may wonder why I'm in such a grump. Then others may see me and...

Since my last post I have been truly humbled by the lovely messages and comments I've received, not only from those going through such a thing as myself but those who want to support myself and others during depression. I want to say thank you. Thank you for the messages for love. Thank you for the messages of support. And thank you for understanding. It's difficult to know where to go from here. Such a reaction to a personal blog post has made me wonder what I want my blog to be about. I always thought a crochet blog should just be about crochet but it seems the blogging world isn't as simple as I'd thought. [caption width="720" id="attachment_1216" align="alignnone"] A little craft goes a long way[/caption] I read many crafting blogs that express an element of life too, in fact some of them are more about life than the crafting and those are the blogs I enjoy reading most. So what does it matter? It's my blog and my outlet so I can w...

This is possibly the most difficult blog post I've ever written. It's something exceptionally personal which means leaving part of my soul bare in the internet for all to see. So why write it? Well, for me, writing it is part of my medicine and I believe sharing can really, really help. It will not only help me but (I hope) it will help others too- help others know they're not alone and help others understand the murky waters I swim every day. I suffer with depression. I hate using the word 'suffer' as I feel like a victim every time I use it. But in truth it's not just me that suffers- it's everyone around me, from the dogs right up to my husband and friends. Now this is a world away from my normal blog post but the words have been wriggling around in my brain for some time now. Today they have finally wriggled free, through my hand, into my pen and on to my page, then the iPad. Despite the increase in media coverage, promises from government and more openn...

That sentence always gets that old song in my head "I was born by a river, in a little tent. And just like that river, I've been running everywhere since".  Sounds like me on a Wednesday! Seriously now our family is in need of a change. That niggling feeling has been following us around for sometime and finally we have given in. Change is definitely in the air. I'm sure some would say adding another child to a family would be change enough but sometimes the change is geographical even if it's just a couple of streets. We currently are looking at two choices regarding housing and location and I'm not at liberty to disclose either but I can tell you it feels good. Just planning to move, even if we stay put for a few months whilst we iron out the kinks, feels good. You'd think that the uncertainty would drive us mad but at the moment it's quite nice because it's new. It's excited uncertainty, surrounded by the comfort of familiar things. An uncert...